Silicon Valley Advances Ahead of Apple

When Apple unveils its latest creation the rest of the tech industry scrambles to follow in its footsteps, thankfully that is not the case when it comes to urban planning and the wellbeing of their employees. Last year Steve Jobs announced Apple’s plans for a new corporate office in Cupertino, California. When asked by the city council how Apple will help the city Steve Jobs simply replied that they will pay their taxes. The building’s sleek looks and futuristic design astonished many people. Unfortunately when planners see this plan they view it as a missed opportunity to improve the community. The single use building sits on 175 acres with parking for 12,000 employees, with easy access to highway 280. Apple again emphasized their pro-car stance when introducing their new maps features in iOS 6 whose key features include turn-by-turn navigation, real-time traffic updates, and the ability to sync with your new car.

Area plan for Apple’s new “spaceship” campus
Image courtesy of http://www.9to5mac.com

Most people spend many hours of their day at work and commuting to and from work, leaving little time for exercise. One way to include physical activity into our work day is by walking or biking to/from work and using breaks/lunch to go outside and be active. Employers benefit financially from healthy employees. Many companies are starting employee wellness programs, which in turn will boost employee productivity and lower costs of employers. Employers can encourage healthy lifestyles by promoting public transit use and encouraging walking and biking to work through design and infrastructure: open stair wells, bike racks, sidewalks, and office location close to public transit and in mixed use neighborhoods.

When Google decided to expand their headquarters they reached out to their community of Mountain View, CA to change the course of the city’s development. Mountain View’s updated master plan includes mixed-use infill development, walking and biking paths, increasing public transit, and a focus on community connectivity. The largest portions of the development is residential aimed at younger professionals working for the tech giant. The goal is for all components to work together to form a sustainable 24/7, live/work community.

Amazon headquarter plans
Image courtesy of: http://allthingsd.com

Amazon announced their plans in March to develop three blocks in downtown Seattle. The massive project will include three new office towers as well as retail and near by residential. The site in South Lake Union is a great neighborhood that has a both an extremely high walkscore and transitscore. The site Apple has chosen for their project only scores a 49 for walking and even worse for public transit. Amazon’s new development will create 15% more leasable space than Apple’s project on just a fraction of the acreage.

Apple’s new headquarters is aptly named “the spaceship campus” because of its perfectly round shape that resembles a flying saucer. This building and surrounding area is really something from another world, unfortunately it will be built on this world, for real people.

Public Health and Urban Sprawl

In addition to our weekly posts we will also occasionally submit book reviews that deal with our subject matter. The purpose of these reviews is simply to share with you what we have read and give recommendations to guide your own reading choices. Instead of giving a traditional rating (4 stars out of 5) we’ll give you one of three recommendations: “Buy”, “Read”, or “Leave.” For us book reviews have been helpful for us to decide what books we want to read next and hopefully we can do that for you. Please note that these reviews are only our opinion and we do not benefit in any way from them or any purchase of a book. Our first book review is Urban Sprawl and Public Health, an obvious place for us to start.

Public Health and Urban Sprawl:
Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities
By: Howard Frumkin, Lawrence Frank, and Dr. Richard J. Jackson

Public Health and Urban Sprawl: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities, the title says it all. This book is a must read for anyone in public health or urban planning and is a good read for everyone else. Public health officials want to create healthy communities and this book shows that collaboration with Urban Planning can do this. The book starts out by explaining what urban sprawl is, how, and why it started. It then goes into the effects that urban sprawl has on our communities and how that in turn has affected our health and well-being. It is relatively easy to read and understand and is full of research and studies on each topic making the authors’ arguments evidence based. The book covers a variety of topics including: air quality, physical activity, water quality and more. The book is a little lengthy but only because it covers so many diverse and important topics. The authors’ conclude the book by suggesting answers to the problem of urban sprawl. This book is full of research and studies and serves as a good reference to have on hand. Our official recommendation is BUY.